Sarcasm & Ambiguity Flashcards

1
Q
  1. Metalinguistic Awareness

2. Sarcasm & Ambiguity

A
  1. Metalinguistic Awareness: the ability to reflect on the nature of language
  2. Linguistic phenomena that express complex and multidimensional meanings
    - Changes throughout school-age years, adolescence, and adulthood
    - Impacts literacy development
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2
Q

Assessments

A
  • Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (CASL)
  • – Idiomatic Language
  • Oral-Written Language Scale (OWLS)
  • – Listening Comprehension of Idioms
  • Social Inference-Minimal Test (SI-E)
  • – Assesses comprehension of sincere vs sarcastic exchanges
  • Social Inference-Enriched Test (SI-E)
  • – Assesses lies vs sarcasm
  • Social Emotional Evaluation (SEE)
  • – Understanding Conflicting Messages/Identifying the true meaning of a message
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3
Q

Ambiguity

A

A word or expression that can be understood in two or more possible ways

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4
Q

Why Do We Need to Understand Ambiguity

A
  • Humor
    Q: “What did the short tree say to the long tree?”
    A: “I’m stumped.”
  • Newspaper Headlines

— Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges

— Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half

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5
Q

Understanding Ambiguity

A

Understand words have double-meanings

Appreciate linguistic contexts

Nonlinguistic information may be required

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6
Q

Components of ambiguity

A

1.) Isolated Sentences
“It’s too hot to eat.”

2.) Humor
Riddles, jokes, and comic strips

3.) Advertisements
“Designed to move you.” (Ford)

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7
Q

Research Results from Interpreting Ambiguous Sentences with Adults

A
  • Lexical Ambiguities

— Double-meanings were detected the fastest

  • Surface-Structure Ambiguities
  • Deep-Structure Ambiguities

Overall Findings:

  • Children were able to best interpret the double meaning in sentences containing lexical ambiguities
  • Both surface-structure and deep structure ambiguities were about equal in difficulty level
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8
Q

4 types of ambiguous sentences

A

1, phonological- Changes in the pronunciation of 1 or more words in a sentence

  1. lexical- A word/phrase has 2 different meanings
  2. surface structure- Variations in intonational patterns (stress & juncture)
  3. deep structure- Noun can serve as either the agent or the object
    - Understanding of the 4 ambiguity types increased with age
    - Phonological ambiguous sentences were the easiest for children of all ages to detect and explain
    - Surface-structure and deep-structure ambiguous tasks were the most difficult for children to understand
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9
Q

Addressing Syntactic Ambiguity in Therapy

A
  • The grammatical construction of the phrase or sentence brings about the misinterpretation

— Ex.) “I know a man with a friend who plays baseball.”

—— Who plays baseball?

  • We need to clarify the meanings of an ambiguous sentence by expressing the same idea but using a different form of words or grammatical terminology

— Ex.) “The man’s friend plays baseball.

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10
Q

The Importance of Humor

A
  • “Real-world language”

— A naturally occurring part of children’s culture

  • Interwoven with linguistic and cognitive development, abstract reasoning, and factual knowledge.
  • Promotes peer acceptance, self-esteem, and personal adjustment
  • Provides a socially acceptable way to manage anxiety associated with peer relationships and physical changes
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11
Q

Jokes & Riddles

A
  • The humor in jokes results from the incongruity between 2 sentences and its subsequent resolution
  • Four types of ambiguous jokes & riddles

— Phonological

— Lexical

— Surface-Structure

— Deep-Structure

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12
Q

Jokes

A
  • Ability to target the critical ambiguous elements improved as participant age increased
  • Jokes based on phonological ambiguities are the easiest to identify
  • By middle adolescence, children are quite adept at understanding jokes involving linguistic ambiguity
  • Cognition plays an important role in understanding humor
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13
Q

Riddles

A
  • Ability to target the critical ambiguous elements improved as participant age increased
  • Riddles based on lexical ambiguities are the easiest to understand
  • Phonological, surface-structure and deep-structure ambiguities were equally difficult
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14
Q

Components of Understanding Humor

A
  • Reading Comprehension

—- Decoding Skills

——– Real and Non-sense Words

  • Word Knowledge
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15
Q

Idioms in Jokes & Riddles

A
  • Detection of the idiom was easier than the explanation
  • Performance improved with age

— Oldest participants had still not mastered the task

  • Jokes & Riddles containing idioms may be a gradual process that remains incomplete into late adulthood
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16
Q

Strategies to Implement with Children on the Autism Spectrum

A
  • Train child to seek clarifying information when they don’t understand or are confused.
  • Focus on visual humor.
  • Intentionally teach idioms.
  • Teach 1-2 jokes that the child can share socially.
17
Q

Adolescents and Ambiguity

A
  • Little is know about the development of humor in adolescents
  • Adolescents tend to be uninterested in memorized jokes and riddles. They prefer more sophisticated forms of humor involving abstract themes and greater cognitive challenges.

Example: What should you do if you have insomnia?

  • Don’t lose any sleep over it
18
Q

Advertisements

A
  • Advertisements that incorporate double meanings of words and phrases require an understanding of linguistic ambiguity in natural settings.
  • The understanding of ambiguous advertisements reflects metalinguistic development and competence with real-world language experiences
19
Q

Sarcasm

A
  • Used to express complex meanings that can be interpreted in a number of different ways
  • Understanding sarcasm requires the ability to recognize a difference between what is said and what is meant, and also to realize the purpose of the speaker in making
  • A sarcastic statement is not to be taken literally and the speaker usually means just the opposite of what he or she says
  • Sarcasm can be used to vent frustration or to criticize a person or situation
  • the use of sarcasm to deliver criticism may be interpreted as humorous, and may lessen the sting of a bad situation
  • Boys and men tend to use sarcasm more because they like the social riskiness that is associated with its use
20
Q

Sarcasm in Children

A
  • Comprehension of sarcasm depends on context clues, speaker intonation, nonlinguistic and experiential clues
  • The majority of adult communication of sarcasm occurs non-verbally, through gestures, body languages, and tone of voice
  • Children are quicker to interpret words literally and to miss or disregard non-verbal cues.
21
Q

Understanding Sarcasm

A

With development, children will show an increasing ability to appreciate the varied pragmatic functions that sarcasm can serve

  • Although young children have a difficult time understand sarcasm, comprehension improves during school-age years